[ijmccollum]

Hi all. Am new to the Gecko Forums, it was a referred site from the Chameleon Forum for those members that also keep Geckos. I currently have two Geckos in residence. One adult male albino African fat tailed and one semi-adult Malaysian golden gecko. The fat-tailed has been with us for about 5 yrs now and is quite the handsome studly guy. The golden has been with us for only a couple of days. He came in as a rescue animal. He had been in a pet store, sold, brought back with hind leg parylisis. When I went in for feeders for my zoo-crew I was approached by employees regarding adoption. I relented. He now resides in a 10 g screened tank with paper towel substrate, 60 w red night light -- am just using room light above the hospital cage for daylight stimulation and am keeping humidity up with spray-mist. I know he is tropical, nocturnal and requires temp range of 70-80 degrees, eats variable insects, and some fruits. He has been receiving nightly soaks in warm water and offered puree of banana/apple/mango. Currently apricot and peaches are unavailable in our local stores. I am pretty confident that the injury is not just MBD as there is obvious dermal injury. Also, there is signs of some twitch reflex -- but no true movement in hind legs and further down. He is alert and has all use of frontal legs and will move himself in that manner. He has had white urate but no feces passed since he has been in residence (Th, 11-12-2009) Advice is welcomed. thank you.

[Saille]

Try feeding the Repashy Crested gecko diet as a fruit alternative as it has good nutrition in it. Aside from soaks, all I can suggest is getting him to a vet for an x-ray to see what might be going on with those hind legs.
try Herp Vet Connection or ARAV redirect to try and find a reptile/exotics vet near you. Good luck with the little Golden!

[aliceinwl]

It looks almost like something was dropped on him crushing the hind quarters. There seems to be extensive bruising even in the toes. His eyes also look kind of sunken which would indicate he's in pretty bad shape.

I'm not sure what all a vet would be able to do for him if it is a traumatic injury as it appears to be, and unless you have access to one that really knows herps all the poking and prodding that are part of the examination and the stress of such handling are likely to do more harm than good.

I would not handle him at all and only offer fluids and liquid foods, with food only being offered in small quantities. Offer it via an eye dropper and let him lick it up if interested. Hopefully this will give any internal injuries a chance to heal and any fractured bones as well. I'd mix up some calcium supplement with the liquid food if you suspect he might have had MBD issues (I think trauma is the primary culprit).

Basically provide supportive care and cross your fingers. I had a house gecko get shut in a screen lid years back. It crushed his pelvis and he was pretty much paralyzed in the hind quarters, with extensive bruising (the whole back end was purple). He had a bit of a twitch reflex. It took a couple of months, but he ended up making a full recovery. As long nothing's perferated internally, your guy has a chance.

Good luck,
Alice